The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Getting to Know Us: Meet the Reporters!

By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff

This is the third in a three-part series of blog posts intended to introduce you to the Legal's editorial team. Today's post focuses on our reporters, so that you can learn a bit about what each of them covers (their "beat" in journalism-jargon) and how to get in touch with them.

Amaris Elliott-Engel covers the first and third largest county court systems in the state, the Philadelphia court system and the Montgomery County courts, as well as the Philadelphia Bar Association, the state court system's finances and the interaction of the state judiciary with the other branches of government.
Amaris joined the company in August 2007. Prior to joining the Legal staff, she was a staff reporter covering a police and courts beat, as well as the Native American land claims beat, for The Citizen newspaper in Auburn, N.Y. She earned her bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., and is currently am attending Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law's evening law program.
To contact Amaris, e-mail [email protected] or call 215-557-2354. Follow her on Twitter at @AmarisTLI.

Zack Needles covers business of law stories regarding small and midsized firms. He also covers law firm news and court opinions out of the surrounding counties, including Chester, Bucks and Delaware counties. 
Zack joined the company in 2008. Prior to joining the Legal staff, he was a freelance reporter with the Times of Trenton in Trenton, N.J. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Rider University in 2007.
To contact Zack, e-mail [email protected] or call 215-557-2493. Follow him on Twitter at ZNeedlesTLI.

Gina Passarella is our senior reporter, covering the business of law, focusing on the largest law firms in Pennsylvania. She also writes about corporate counsel and litigation.
Gina joined the Legal in 2005. She received an undergraduate degree in public communications from American University in 2004 and a master's in broadcast journalism and public affairs from American in 2005.
To contact Gina, e-mail [email protected] or call 215-557-2494. Follow her on Twitter at @GPassarellaTLI.

Leo Strupczewski covers Pennsylvania's judiciary, developments in the law and emerging trends. His beat also includes the courts' interaction with the other two branches of government and investigative work.
In the last year, Leo has covered the federal corruption trial of former Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., changes to the state's Judicial Conduct Board and juvenile justice system and allegations of corruption in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Leo joined the company in 2008. Prior to joining the Legal staff, he was a reporter with the Courier-Post newspaper in Cherry Hill, N.J. He received a B.A. in English from Saint Joseph's University in 2006.
To contact Leo, e-mail [email protected] or call 215-557-2315. Follow him on Twitter at @StrupczewskiTLI.

Shannon P. Duffy is the U.S. Courthouse Correspondent for the Legal. Shannon has served as our eyes and ears at the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia since 1988, covering the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and 3rd Circuit courts.
To contact Shannon, e-mail [email protected] or call 215-880-3700.

Our reporters always welcome submissions from attorneys on their recent verdicts and settlements. They’ll generally ask for pretrial documents that outline the factual background and key legal issues in the case. Make sure they include your key arguments, as well. Though we cover many of the submissions we receive, we cannot cover any results that include confidentiality agreements.

We hope that you’ve enjoyed getting to meet us this week, and we hope that you’ll get in touch with us, either to send over a verdict or settlement, to offer feedback on our coverage, or to pitch us a story!

Getting to Know Us: Meet The Legal Staff!

By Jaime Bochet
Of the Legal Staff

Some days, I wish I lived in Harry Potter’s world -- where we could wave a magic wand, chant an incantation and poof! The work would be done perfectly.

But putting together a daily newspaper (not to mention a weekly statewide section, a weekly Delaware newspaper, a weekly Delaware-focused e-newsletter, regular special sections and yearly magazines) is not exactly like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. 

The Editorial Department of The Legal is relatively small, but each person plays an integral role in bringing you the latest legal news through our printed products and online content. Many of you have probably had some kind of contact with us, but just as we want to get to know our audience as best we can to provide the coverage you want, we want you to get to know us.

Our goal in doing this is to help you understand what we all do here, so that if you ever have a question, you’ll know who to ask about what. Hopefully, you'll feel better about picking up the phone if you know you're calling the right person.

This will be the first of three blog posts about our staff, so be sure to watch for new updates tomorrow and Wednesday, when you’ll meet the copy desk (the editors) and the reporters. 

Today, we’d like you to meet our Editor-in-Chief, Hank Grezlak.

Hank is the Editor-in-Chief of The Legal Intelligencer and the other Pennsylvania-based products of ALM, its parent company.

Hank has worn many hats in his 18 years as an employee with The Legal. Prior to becoming the Editor-in-Chief in 2005, Hank served as associate publisher of the Pennsylvania division since 2001, with responsibility for managing editorial development for a wide range of print and online products.

He originally joined the company in 1993 as a staff reporter for The Legal and served as managing editor of newspapers and director of new product development and research. He has won five Keystone Press Awards and five Schnader Print Media awards for his investigative reporting and columns. A Bucks County native, Hank received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.

Hank frequently writes for the paper, and some of his most recent “From the Chief” columns can be read here:

"On Marcellus Shale Policy, DEP's Krancer Should Have Known Better"
"If Pa. Supreme Court Won't Reform JCB, Then Someone Else Should"

He and reporter Leo Strupczewski have been the primary writers on the Luzerne County courthouse scandal, and you can read some of their best stuff here:

"Ex-Luzerne Judges Created Culture of Fear, Corruption"
"Judicial Conduct Complaint Was Filed Against Conahan in 2006"

Hank is the one to contact if you have questions or comments about our coverage or other big-picture sorts of matters. He can be reached by e-mailing [email protected] or calling 215-557-2386. Follow him on Twitter at @HGrezlakTLI.

Tomorrow, we’ll introduce you to the other editors, and on Wednesday, meet the reporters!

Ciavarella Begins Appeals Process With Series of Motions

By Leo Strupczewski
Of the Legal Staff

Convicted last month of racketeering and honest services fraud, Former Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella has filed a series of motions to have the most serious charges against him tossed.

Three separate documents filed by Ciavarella's attorneys Friday challenged the sufficiency of evidence presented by federal prosecutors and rulings made by the judge who oversaw the seven days of trial and two days of jury deliberations. In them, Ciavarella asks for an arrest of judgment, acquittal or new trial on seven of his 12 convictions.

Absent from the challenges are any mentions of Ciavarella's five tax fraud and fax fraud conspiracy convictions, to which he admitted near universal guilt while on the witness stand during trial.

Instead, the former judge has targeted the two counts of racketeering, four counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of money laundering conspiracy.

In his motion for acquittal, Ciavarella argued that the prosecution's evidence failed to prove that the allegations of racketeering and money laundering conspiracy occurred within the five year statute of limitations or that money he received from the builder of two juvenile detention facilities was illegal in any way.

Further, Ciavarella argued, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year in U.S. v. Skilling, which limited the honest services fraud to bribery and kickbacks, barred him from being tried on those charges.

Ciavarella argued the premise of his conviction on the honest services charges was "non-disclosure of conflicts of interest."

Ciavarella also argued in his motion for a new trial that U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Edwin M. Kosik had erred by not allowing him to introduce into evidence comments made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod during plea hearings for developer Robert K. Mericle and a former co-owner of the juvenile detention facilities, Robert J. Powell.

Ciavarella had hoped to use those statements -- which included Zubrod saying Mericle's payments to Ciavarella amounted to nothing more than a finder's fee -- in his defense.

He had also hoped to keep out of the case any reference to civil cases he heard as a judge involving Mericle or Powell. Kosik let prosecutors mention those cases.

Ciavarella was accused by federal prosecutors in January 2009 of concocting a "kids-for-cash" scheme with fellow former Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael T. Conahan and taking more than $2.8 million from Mericle and Powell.

A jury, however, only found Ciavarella took $997,000 from Mericle in his capacity as a judge, conspired to launder that money and lied about it on his tax returns.

Conahan pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge in an open-ended agreement with federal prosecutors.

Mericle and Powell also admitted wrongdoing for their roles in the case.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, Heidi Havens, was not available for comment.

One of Ciavarella's attorneys, Al Flora, said briefs to support the motions must be filed within 14 days under court rules. Prosecutors are then able to file briefs in opposition and Kosik will make rulings on the issues.

Meanwhile, federal probation officials have already begun the process of putting together Ciavarella's pre-sentence report, Flora said.

Leo Strupczewski can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Reporter's Notebook: Powell a King-Sized Presence on Witness Stand

By Leo Strupczewski
Of the Legal Staff

Robert J. Powell's nearly two hours on the witness stand at Mark Ciavarella’s federal racketeering trial Tuesday was highly eventful.

And since The Legal's story could only covered a small portion of the proceedings, this blog post -- a good place to empty the reporter's notebook -- can fill out the picture. This is the sort of material that could show up in later stories or fuel newsroom discussion. Or, it might never appear at all. So, consider yourself lucky. You're "in the know."

First things first: Bob Powell is big. Tall, wide. More tight end than power forward.

So big, in fact, that U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Edwin Kosik asked Powell as he made his way to the stand whether he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Powell seemed to misinterpret the joke as a question and told Kosik he "didn't have a dog in the fight," an obvious reference to the Super Bowl.

Seems Powell figured Kosik was inquisitive of his fandom when others interpreted the question as Kosik joking that Powell could play in the National Football League.

Keeping with appearances, Powell was an unshakable presence. True, he wasn’t cross-examined Tuesday, but his command on the stand was impressive. It fit his size. He was sure of himself and, unprompted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod, offered his own views on the morality of Ciavarella's alleged actions. Powell likewise was a natural storyteller. His recollections of meetings with the judges were delivered with a certain polish, but did not seem rehearsed. Jurors likely won’t have a hard time choosing to believe him.

More than Ciavarella, it was fellow former judge Michael T. Conahan whose name seemed to surface the most during Powell's testimony.

Powell met Conahan, who has since pleaded guilty to charges related to the alleged scheme, when the former judge was still serving as a magisterial district justice. It was only through his friendship with Conahan that Powell met Ciavarella.

Powell also tried to paint Ciavarella as the mastermind of the scheme to build a private juvenile detention facility, telling the court that Ciavarella brought up the idea of Powell backing such a place with Gregory Zappala, since the two had done a lot of bond work together.

Zappala became a co-owner in the facility but has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Perhaps most ominous about that portion of Powell's testimony was that his conversation with Ciavarella took place while a jury was deliberating in a case Powell had before the judge. During the time the jury was out, Ciavarella asked Powell and his opposing counsel whether there was an objection to him adjudicating some juveniles while they waited for the jury to reach a verdict. No one objected and Ciavarella sent the attorneys outside the courtroom.

The kids walked in, Powell said, and some were in shackles. One reminded him of his son, he said, and when Ciavarella asked him about the proceedings afterward, he told him the county needed a new facility.

Ciavarella told Powell that maybe after the trial was over, they could “get together to figure out [how to] help the county."

"I thought, sure, that'd be a great thing to do," Powell said.

The day's testimony ended when a juror's cell phone rang.

Kosik has previously said testimony would wrap up at 3 p.m. and the phone rang around 2:50. Kosik looked at Zubrod, who was still questioning Powell on direct examination, and told him it was "a sign from God."

PBA’s Constitutional Review Commission Changes Hearings Schedule

By Leo Strupczewski
Of the Legal Staff

The Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Constitutional Review Commission has made several changes to its public hearings schedule, cancelling four events and rescheduling another two.

The changes come a week after PBA officials reported they received little in the way of response for testimony before the commission’s judiciary committee at a Jan. 19 hearing in Pittsburgh.

That hearing, along with the judiciary committee’s Feb. 16 hearing at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law and March 16 hearing at the Erie County Council Chambers, was cancelled. All three may be rescheduled at a later time, said Jeff Gingerich, a PBA spokesman.

A fourth hearing, scheduled by the commission’s legislative reapportionment committee for Feb. 23 at Dickinson, was also cancelled. It will not be rescheduled.

The judiciary committee has also rescheduled its Harrisburg public hearing from June 22 to March 16. That hearing will be held at the Widener University School of Law, Harrisburg Campus, in Room A180, according to the new schedule. It is scheduled to run from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Likewise, the judiciary committee has moved its Philadelphia public hearing from May 17 to May 4. That hearing is scheduled to take place at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s Conference Center, according to the schedule. It, too, is planned to run from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Gingerich said the commission will continue to update its website, www.pabarcrc.org, with any additional schedule changes.